


Total Eclipse of the Heart - Underfell!Papyrus x Reader

by Amorentia_Quibble



Category: Undertale (Video Game)
Genre: Not a super happy relationship at first, Other, Possible Lena Syndrome, Possible Stockholm Syndrome, Slow Updates, Usual UF Violence, bear with me guys, lots of swearing, super slow burn
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2017-06-28
Updated: 2017-07-24
Packaged: 2018-11-20 04:09:50
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Graphic Depictions Of Violence
Chapters: 3
Words: 9,529
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/11328324
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Amorentia_Quibble/pseuds/Amorentia_Quibble
Summary: Everything that had happened since you'd fallen underground had been crazy, but never did you expect to come head to head with the supreme asshole that was Papyrus.





	1. The Shed

“Well... this is a nice change in scenery.” You sighed quietly in a mocking, falsely-cheerful tone, halfheartedly stumbling into the shed you were being, rather forcefully, led into. Despite the fake happiness you'd attempted to inject into your voice at the sight of the shed, your face mirrored just how impressed you really were with your current predicament.

You weren’t very impressed at all.

“This is a prison cell.” A gravelly voice deadpanned behind you, the sound harsh on your ears that had heard too much of that voice already. Already you found yourself cringing away slightly upon hearing your captor, turning around with an icy expression frozen in your eyes, while plastering on a fake, sickly-sweet smile, being sure to make it as sarcastic as you possibly could.

“Oh, really? I never noticed, it just looks like a trash pile to me,” You replied, ignoring the deadly glower you’d received a hundred times already within the half an hour you’d known the stupidly tall skeleton who now held you as his prisoner, “The only upside to this all is that it’s about 2 degrees warmer in here than outside.” You mumbled to yourself, ignoring the urge to rub your hands over your forearms in an attempt to gather the slightest bit of warmth in the icy town you’d found yourself in, knowing it was impossible with your hands bound as they were. Heavy metal cuffs held your wrists tightly together crudely, parts of the metal bent and dented, as if someone had thrown them against a brick wall, and the wall had won.

“You should be grateful, cretin,” The skeleton growled, picking you up by the back of your shirt collar, dragging you unceremoniously across the dusty concrete floor with little effort to free yourself from you, before dropping you into the corner, a ratty blanket and pillow barely breaking your fall, “I could have killed you the moment I saw you, taken your soul. You are, after all, the last soul needed to break the barrier. Someone as valuable as you are, yet I found it within me to show you some respect, allow you to retain just a bare sliver of dignity.” He said, looming over you threateningly with a strange expression, as if expecting you to get on your hands and knees and thank him for being so decent as to not kill you. In your current state, any more movement felt pretty impossible. Your body had certainly seen better days, and while you were sure that your captor would love for you to bow down to him and feed to his already over-inflated ego, you feared that your body would fall apart at any more sudden movements. Or just... movement in general.

 

Falling to your untimely death, while not actually causing death, had certainly left a fair share of bad, and horrifically painful injuries. You were fairly certain you’d broken your ankle, and your right arm had barely any feeling in it, apart from an oddly intense yet dull pain that you’d begun to just ignore. Your face had been burned both by fire and by the cold sting of ice as you laid in the snow outside of that crazed goat lady’s home. You also hadn’t eaten or had any water for something like two days, though keeping track of time underground with no sense of day or night made it a little tricky to know for sure. No matter how long had passed, you were beyond tired, and beyond the reasonable definition of weak.

You were... Ultra-Weak. Likely the reason that you’d been found by the edgy-ass skeleton while you laid, half conscious, in the snow, clothes both soaked through and with still-smoking burns strewn across them.

 

“So why exactly didn’t you kill me, again?” You questioned after a moment of shifting, by now just sick of this charade, wanting it to be over if that was how this was gonna go down. The skeleton seemed to falter at that, before narrowing his eyes and straightening up, puffing out his chest slightly as he glared down at you.

 

“Just because we need your soul doesn’t mean I have no sense of chivalry,” Wow, really? You could sure argue against that, “You were lying there in the snow, with absolutely no chance of fighting back! It would have been less than sporting.”

 

“...You make it sound like you're gonna try nurture me back to health so you can kill me with a slightly clearer conscience.” You stated with a slight roll of the eyes, struggling to pull the barely held together blanket over you without ripping it, already fraying the ends you were holding thanks to your handling of it.

 

“Precisely!” He replied, oblivious to your struggle and how you froze up in slight surprise at his honesty... Not that it put you much at ease about anything.

 

“You’re more of a psychopath than I first thought. Congrats, you managed to surprised me.” You sighed after regaining the composure you'd lost for a moment, shuffling back into the corner and drawing your knees up to your chest, trying to maneuver yourself so you didn’t disturb your injuries too much. At this point, knowing that you were now just up for slaughter once you healed up just sort of made your pretty dreary outlook on this situation feel horribly worse. What was the point of getting better if it just lead to your death? It was sort of a sucky end-of-the-line, when you thought about it. Murder, and you'd barely be able to stop it. What if he just killed you in your sleep or some creepy-ass shit like that?

Well fuck, guess who's not gonna be able to sleep tonight. Or ever again. Your mind was forcing you into thinkingof all the twisted ways this skeleton could possibly kill you, mind straying to thoughts of the fire magic that Toriel had possessed when fighting you.

The Goat woman you had met in The Ruins, as the place was so aptly names, seemed to have gone insane over time, refusing to acknowledge any other beings that dared to move near you, calling you names like ‘Chara’ and ‘Asriel’, sometimes acting cheery, happily cooking away in her run-down kitchen, other times bawling her eyes out at a mere mention of something as trivial as snails (which had accidentally come up while you were browsing her bookshelf, there being a rather large array of snail-related books). But other times, she just got angry. Like when you decided it was definitely time for you to start getting a move on in finding your way outta the hellhole you’d found yourself in. The fire that had eaten away at parts of the flesh on your face like burning tongues, starved of nutrition for as long as they could remember, still felt as if it was burning on your face, and many a time had you startled after a moment where the bright, sparking pain of the fire registered in your mind, you doing your best to get rid of it before remembering that it was just a reminder.

After a run in like that, with someone far less insane, or so it seemed, who’d likely have more control than someone like her...boy you did not want to be on the wrong side of him until you really had to be. And sleep also just sounded like a bad idea in general here. You didn't wanna get shivved in your sleep.

Seeing you curl up, your body leaning onto one of the cold, metal poles that made up a crude, and somewhat insulting ‘cage’ with bars meters apart, the skeleton seemed to remember something, making a motion that looked like blinking , despite his being a skeleton, before turning to one of the many cabinets that haphazardly found themselves across different parts of the room.

As you looked around the shed, really, for the first time, you began to realise just how scary this guy might be, even without thinking about magic, considering the amount of weapons and torture devices that sprawled across the walls. Knives, swords, strange twisting metal contraptions that you couldn’t begin to try identify, lots more stabby things, stuff that looked like crude, medieval tasers, or something of the sort, the list of strange devices seemed to have no end as you glanced around, feeling more dread enter you as you sighed, curling up into yourself as you winced at the twang of pain it caused you, ignoring the musky smell that had been invading your senses. As the slight adrenaline rush you’d felt while being dragged here finally seemed to wear off, the hunger, thirst and tiredness was finally truly consuming you, and the effort of keeping your eyes open was getting to be a bit much, no matter the terrifying thoughts running through your mind. Humans did need sleep, maybe just closing your eyes for a minute while your captor had his back turned would be the only time you could rest for a while. You had to take the chance, didn't you?

As you let them drift closed, thoughts of the edgy bitch that had caught you dulled just slightly and you felt your shoulders and the muscles in your back relax enough for you to calm into a slight doze. Sadly, Mr Edgy Bitch himself quickly interrupted the moment of reprieve as you felt a boney hand forcefully seized hold of your chin, startling you awake enough to try swat them away, no matter the pain it caused your injured arm, or how useless it was with your hands in chains. Despite your efforts, you quickly found your hands completely immobile and held firmly before you by an unknown source, unable to move no matter how you struggled. Your hands and arms glowed slightly, a reddish colour engulfing your limbs and holding them like a vice. Confusion seemed to be a worthwhile distraction for the skeleton as something was swiftly clipped around your neck before you could struggle any further against him. As you spotted the chain hanging before you in the skeleton’s grasp when he moved away, you realised with embarrassment that it was some sort of collar.

Why.

You felt your hands fall limply into your lap as they were released from the near invisible grip, holding in a pained noise as your injured arm came in contact with your knee, opting to instead suck in a sharp breath in an attempt to dull the pain. The skeleton showed about as much care as you expected, tugging the chain hard, making you topple slightly as he tied the chain around the pole you were leaning against. You watched in slight interest, only because you were unsure as to how it would stay there when he’d merely tied it as if he were tying a shoelace

The burgundy red coloured aura that emitted from his hand, surrounding the chain, was certainly unexpected, even if it was the same colour as what had held you still mere moments ago. What was even more surprising, however, was the sharp electric shock you received as the coloured current travelled quickly into your collar from the metal, making you yell out from the pain that seemed to travel through your entire body, tears quickly appearing in your eyes as you screamed.

It felt like far more time had passed than a few seconds, but that’s all it had been before the skeleton moved away from the pole, the electricity running through you leaving quickly, leaving you not only exhausted and in a higher amount of pain than before, but feeling barely coherent, like you were about to pass out.

“There, now that should stay in place, and unless I do it myself, both the chain and collar are unable to be removed,” The skeleton said triumphantly, as if this feat were something to be celebrated, “Now, you dim-witted imbecile...” You barely had the consciousness to look up when you were referred to, eyes glassy as tears poured down your face, more unconsciously than anything. You were having trouble stringing together even the most simple of thoughts, but you were able to register confusion, at least, on the stupid skeleton’s skull.

“The hell is wrong with you? It was barely a shock at all! You should have been more prepared.” Wow, you sure hoped this guy wasn't some sort of personal motivator for some poor soul. The grating voice of the skeleton was loud enough to penetrate your scrambled mind as you squinted up at him. You felt a vague sense of anger run through you, but not enough to truly be able to act on it in your state. You managed a faint growl of annoyance, trying to sit up, but failed, slumping against the pylon beside you, resorting to just flipping the bird at the asshole.

Seeming amused, if anything, at your attempt at retaliation, the skeleton kneeled down in front of you. You felt your adrenalin spike for a moment. After that crazy-ass display of his power, you certainly didn't feel like being withinclose proximity with this guy.

“Do you fear me?” He asked, grabbing your collar tightly and pulling your face closer toward him, the only thing you felt able to see properly were his glowing red eye-lights, doing nothing to shine any light within the seeming void that was the inside of his skull.

“Excuse me?” You faltered, uncertain why he would ask something like that, trying to weakly struggle out of his grip.

“Do you fear me?” He asked once more, far more forcefully than before. His grip on your collar tightened, balling the fabric of your shirt up with it and forcing you ever closer to his freakish features.

You shook your head slowly, trying to keep your expression even as you watched him, mind still hazy enough for everything to feel somewhat dream like. Probably why you were acting so calm at the moment.

The look of shock, then of pure rage, certainly sent an icy stab of apprehension through your heart, that you couldn’t deny. But fearing him? No, not yet. You were sure that this creature wasn’t as horrible as he tried to be, surely. Even as you thought that, you considered that maybe you were being a little too optimistic. After all, he had electrocuted you (said electric shock probably fried your brain a bit more than you thought if you were looking at this guy in any sort of positive light), and it sure seemed you weren’t gonna last long in this world you’d fallen into with this skeleton dead-set on murdering you once it was ‘chivalrous’ to do so.

“No?” He questioned with a growl after a moment of seeing if you'd change your mind, but when you didn't, he seemed to become even more enraged. He stood up without warning, throwing you uncaringly back to the floor, you feeling the back of your head come in contact with the hard metal pole behind you as he did. Groaning out in pain, you could feel your head throbbing, wanting to rub it to ease the pain, but not able to with your hands in chains.

The skeleton stormed away a few steps, the uneven lighting in the room making his skeletal figures seem even more sinister than before, casting dark shadows across his face.

“No is not an answer, you ridiculous, pathetic twit. You will fear me, no matter what it takes. The Great and Terrible Papyrus doesn’t hold such a prestigious title for nothing.”

You watched him as he stood in the middle of the room for a moment, your breathing slightly more breathy than usual as you attempted to say something in return, but nothing came out. As silence well and truly filled the room, the skeleton, or Papyrus, as you now knew he was called, huffed angrily, his dark red boots stomping against the hard, cold ground as he stormed his way out of the shed, slamming the door noisily behind him and startling you. The sound rattled the shed noisily with the force of him closing it as hard as he had, and you found yourself questioning the structural integrity of the prison you now found yourself in.

You sighed, at least slightly relieved that the creature wasn’t in the same room as you. Your breath clouded before you, just proving how cold it was in the hellhole you’d fell into. The snow from outside had managed to slip under the barely attached shed door, and you just hoped that when it melted, you wouldn’t find yourself in a puddle of melted ice. With how steeply the concrete floor tilted down to your side, you didn’t doubt that you would indeed find yourself in that predicament.

You glared daggers at the door, slumping before curling up into yourself to provide what warmth you could in your thin, not-made-for-winter clothes.

In that moment, shivering and in pain, simply awaiting the next move of your captor, you knew you had to escape. Escape the shed. Escape this town. Escape the Underground. Even if the skeleton had to go down first.

 

* * *

 

Heyo Guys! I hope you enjoyed the first chapter of this series!! I've already got the second chapter all done but I'll post it next week so there isn't just a sudden burst in updates then nothing because I'm slow otherwise.

I have a bunch other stories in the works that I will put up here but I'm just gonna do it real slow like so there isn't huge amounts of updates at one time then nothing XD

If you have any questions or just wanna talk to me, I'm a lot easier to reach on my [Quotev account](https://www.quotev.com/Cedelle) or [Tumblr Account](https://amorentia-quibble.tumblr.com/) where I've got a bunch of other stuff planned also

Also, the lovely and ever talented Kiro made [Two](http://kiroflugel.deviantart.com/art/Total-Eclipse-of-the-Heart-688605847) [Fantastic](http://kiroflugel.deviantart.com/art/after-that-there-s-no-after-that-688786319) fanarts already for this chapter!! Go check them out!

Thank you all again so much!

~Amor


	2. More Room to Move

Somehow, you’d managed to get some sleep after Papyrus had left you alone, though for how long, you weren’t sure. With both no clock of any sort, ad no way to see outside, you had no idea how the day, or night, had progressed. You weren’t even sure if the monsters down here knew how much time progressed. How could they if they were underground?

Despite your sleep being about as unrestful as sleep could get, with thoughts of the skeleton storming into the room and deciding to just kill you while you were down, the little time you had gotten had helped take a bit of the edge off of the more minor injuries you had, even if the more significant ones were no different from before. You just had to take what you could get for now, you supposed.

You didn’t have to wait too long once you’d blearily awoken, huddled under the shredded up blanket you’d been so kindly provided by your captor, before said skeleton you so adored walked in with all his cocky, asshole-ish glory, carrying a plate. At the sight of the round, porcelain dish, the perfect white colour sticking out in contrast to the darkness of the shed, a far purer white than even Papyrus’ bones, you felt slight hope and dread fill you at once.

Please have food. Even if you hated this piece of shit bag of bones, you needed food. It had been days, at the very least, and at even the slightest of possibilities that you were about to receive food, you sat up a little straighter. Seeming to see this slight shift in you, you caught an ugly smirk cross his face, obviously knowing what you were thinking as he slowed his walk with purpose, his eyes holding a glint of something akin to the gleam a cartoon villain would attain before doing something particularly nasty.

“So, cretin, it seems you managed to survive the night. You’re perhaps not as weak as I’d imagined!” The gravelly tone to the skeleton’s voice grated harshly on your ears, not so much because of it being such a way, but because he shouted as loud as he did. Whether his voice was naturally booming, or he was just trying really hard to deafen you, you couldn’t quite tell. The fact, however, that it rattled the rickety corrugated metal walls the moment his mouth opened was worrying, considering you couldn’t move to escape if the ramshackle shed decided to collapse if Papyrus said anything just that bit too loudly, “it’s almost too bad that I must kill you, in all honesty. A human soul is known to be unimaginably strong, any asinine creature with half the wit and strength you possess could be trained into an obedient and strong soldier!” Much like how he was now…

You did raise an eyebrow at his statement, however. Trained into a soldier? Having a strong soul? You’d found out about having an actual, physical soul when random monsters started jumping out at you in the ruins, frog like creatures with leering, eerie glares, giant walking eyes who seemed to look right through you, even strange jelly creatures who communicated only in violent wiggling movements. With how hard those monsters had hit, at times, most of these attacks hitting your soul, you could never guess your soul was… strong. Especially in comparison to the monsters who’d easily displayed magical abilities.

“That could be difficult, considering I don’t have weird voodoo magic like all you guys seem to.” You spoke up, seeming to catch Papyrus off for a moment, but not long enough for him to make his surprise noticeable.

“One does not need powerful magic in order to become a feared soldier!!” He assured, not in a comforting way, of course, but in this strangely prideful way, as if being able to train you with an absence of magic would be some awesome feat. It probably would, knowing what you were like, more for talking your way out of problems than stabbing people directly in the chest, but you wouldn’t exactly be proud of yourself if you were in his boots.

“I think I’ll just take what I can get with my quick, imminent death, thanks,” You deadpanned, sighing just slightly as you shifted the blanket so it was spread properly over your lap, legs crossed so you could keep them as warm as possible underneath. Where there were tears in the fabric, cold air flowed through like something were stabbing you with an icicle. It wasn’t pleasant, especially when that feeling was replicated anywhere you had skin uncovered. 

Papyrus didn’t seem overly impressed with your response, but a mere grunt of disapproval was all you recieved, surprising you just slightly as he moved out of your immediate line of sight, grabbing a rickety chair from somewhere in the corner of the room, near a small woven chest, before carrying it over near silently, placing it down and dusting the top of it off with his glove quickly before sitting, the plate and a knife and fork sitting on his lap before him. You felt something inside you shatter as he picked up the fork, twirling what looked like a good amount of spaghetti onto it and lifting it from the plate, in clear view of you. Your stomach rumbled loudly at the sight of it, eyes trained to the food hovering not too far away from you as you ignored the slight blush that arose from the sounds of your hunger.

Papyrus easily noticed your discomfort and your want for the food in his grasp, and he seemed to be thoroughly enjoying seeing you like this.

Bastard. 

You tried your best to seem unphased by the food, knowing he was going to keep being an ass about you not having eaten, surely he was going to eat all the food in front of you before leaving, or maybe leaving the plate so you could lick it clean. Some evil, asshole-ish thing like that.

“Are you hungry?” He questioned after a while of you staring stubbornly past him, no matter how he tried to maneuver himself so the food was in your line of vision. Not that he had to make you see it to know it was still there. By now the strong scent of spaghetti had filled the tiny shed, making it impossible to pretend it wasn’t there. You ignored Papyrus’ attempt to get you to look at him, glaring down the wall in front of you with your arms crossed across your chest.

“Well, I suppose if you aren’t hungry, that this spaghetti is mine to eat-”

“Give me the damn spaghetti before I get up and take it off of you.” You growled in annoyance, knowing that would be the game he was playing. You finally turned to look at him, doing your best to ignore the stupid smirk that had appeared on his face. The spaghetti, dripping with sauce back onto the otherwise immaculate plate, looked the same as it first had, so it seemed the skeleton hadn’t eaten anything. Even so, as you actually looked at him, you noticed his smirk grew, especially at the words you’d spoken.

“Well that sounded like quite the confident remark. How about this; You get up and retrieve the pasta, you can have it. Otherwise it’s mine.” Your eyes narrowed in annoyance at him, looking at the distance between him and the pole you were still very much attached to. You looked at your ‘leash’, wondering how much give it had, the metal chain likely not being all that stretchy. Even so, you were confident. Maybe a little cocky. Maybe just really damn hungry. Whatever you were, you got up, brushing the blanket off of you, seeing that, standing at your full height, there was a fair bit of slack left. The edgy skeleton still seemed far too confident for your liking as you took another step forward.

“You’d best not screw me over by moving where I can't reach you, or moving the plate or some shitty move like that.” You growled, already annoyed by this stupid game he had you playing. He seemed amused enough before, but his devilish grin just grew further and further with every passing second. He knew something that you didn’t, that much was obvious, but you were too past the point of hungry to give a damn at the moment. You kept slowly walking closer, not sure if you were about to be attacked, if this was considered healthy enough for the skeleton to kill you, despite your severe limp and how you had to grip tightly to your arm for it to not ache and throb horribly. However, as you felt the chains holding you back begin to grow taut, and you found you were far closer to Papyrus than you’d expected, you thought that maybe this was an honest game. But could you really think that about a monster such as him? That you weren’t sure about.

You were about arms length away from Papyrus before the chain finally grew too taut for you to walk any further, and your heart sunk. Your arm was able to reach far enough for the skeleton to hand you the plate, but that didn’t seem to be part of the plan.

“Ha, I suppose you didn’t want this after all?” The skeleton questioned, looking down at the fork held between his slender phalanges, twirling it absentmindedly before looking up at you with a smirk, beginning to raise it up to his skull as if about to eat it.

“Don’t you even think about it, mister!” You shouted at him, flailing your uninjured arm in an attempt to get just that bit close enough to snatch the plate out of his hands, the smell of food intoxicating enough to make you feel even more hungry. Your face had contorted into one of absolute fury, and it was obvious he’d noticed. Naturally, he was just more and more amused by your struggle, but you weren’t. At all.

“So what, you’re gonna sit here and eat this in front of me while I starve? I thought you wanted to kill me yourself, not leave me to die like a coward!” You shouted at him, finally giving up your struggle, eyes narrowed at Papyrus as you tried to adjust your collar with your uninjured arm as you talked.

The skeleton looked mostly unfazed by your threats, though you noticed him twitch when you called him a coward. Ooh, can’t stand a blow to his ego, can he? It was almost unnoticeable and was easily covered up when he realised he’d done it, and he spoke with no sign of his voice wavering, “Pah, as if you can die from a mere day without food. A few days, perhaps, but a couple days of torture never killed anybody… or many people, that is.” He said, almost seeming to think back to some sort of… positive memory associated with that sentence. Somehow. God, maybe he was more of a Psychopath than you’d really considered.

“A few days? I haven’t eaten for a week!” You shouted angrily, this announcement seeming to surprise Papyrus, “You obviously don’t know a whole lot about humans, do you?” 

“What? O-of course I do! I know everything there is to know about your pitiful species. What’s worth knowing, that is.” At this you rolled your eyes. And also decided that it was time for some improv.

“Yeah sure, then I guess you knew that after a week of not having consumed food or water, the human stomach begins to eat itself, right? And that the stomach acids within spill out into the other internal organs and slowly kills them from the inside?” You questioned, glaring as you watched that confident facade Papyrus seemed to hold so dear crumble away slightly, seeming shocked by these supposed facts, “So I suppose, if you’d like me to die a horrible, coward death by the hands of my own bodily acids, then go ahead and don’t give me the damn spaghetti. I just hope that whoever you deliver my soul to knows the you were too stupid to listen when I asked and you get no credit for the job.” You ranted with a dark look that seemed to have the skeleton slightly surprised. 

It took a moment for him to process what you’d said, but once he’d blinked himself out of the trance he’d fallen into, he huffed before standing up, handing off the plate of food to you before turning to grab something out of a back pocket in his jeans. 

You felt your heart falter as he did, quickly backing up against the wall, too hasty in your movements to watch for the pole you were attached to, running into it at full force and groaning out in pain. You'd pushed him too far with your snarkiness, surely, and now he was gonna kill you and you'd have no chance of getting out of this hellhole. The noise of your pained cry seemed to alert Papyrus, who turned around with…

A Key.

It wasn’t a knife, or some weird magic weapon. He wasn’t about to kill you for your outburst. As he approached you, your hands still shaking slightly from the moment of fear, he held them firmly, almost too tightly, as he used the key to unlock the handcuffs that still held your hands. As they fell away, you rolled your wrist in relief. Just that little bit of freedom sent relief surging through you. Little victories. 

“I’m going out to work, my brother is keeping watch over you. You’d best eat everything on your plate, or I’ll kill you the moment I return.” You nodded rushedly, feeling so much more fearful compared to a moment ago. Maybe it was the scarily forceful voice Papyrus was using, something akin to that teacher that convinced his students that failing even the most minor of assessment meant the lifelong punishment of being incompetent and unable to amount to anything.

Yeah, that guy was never great at boosting class morale… Sounds like a Papyrus-like teacher.

“You’d best not try any funny business around by brother either,” Papyrus continued, taking the cuffs and walking over to the door, hanging them over a peg on the door before reaching for the handle, “Sans might be a lazy sack of bones, but he won’t hesitate to make your life a living hell if you do anything against his words.” 

You nodded slowly, clinging to that plate of spaghetti as if it was your life source. At this point, it sort of was.

“So what's your brother… uh, Sans, like? In case some other weird edgy skeleton dude tried to walk in and pretend to be him.” You asked, reckoning that if you hadn't pushed it before, you could at least push for half-regular conversation from this guy, as much of a piece of shit he is. Gotta get your kicks from somewhere.

The skeleton sighed, standing beside the door, one gloved hand resting on the rusted doorknob as if he were in a hurry, the other resting high on his hip. “Trust me, as stupid as you might be, even the most brain-dead Moldsmal could identify Sans from a mile away.” He assured, you rolling your eyes at the insult. You knew what those little jelly-like creatures were like, communicating mostly in jiggles. Being likened to them was just the slightest bit rude, but the fact that they were slightly adorable, besides the murdery bit, eased the blow. “There's no need to worry about imposter skeletons, either. Me and that runt are the only two skeletons in the Underground. Now unless you have any more idiotic questions, I'll be leaving.” And with that he stormed out, leaving you to your half-warm spaghetti.

The shed rattled as the door closed not-so-gently behind him, and you plopped yourself down onto the ground, being able to shift into a far more comfortable position for your badly injured arm without the cuffs. Your ankle was still not doing great no matter the position, but you just hoped it was sprained and would heal on its own. Can't make an escape on one leg, after all.

* * *

**Hello my friends!! I know this chapter's out super early (seeing as I wanna be consistent and get stuff out once a month or so >.<) but I wanted to make sure I had everything on all my platforms going at an equal pace, and I got a couple things I wanna say and put in here for you all to see!**

**First of all, thank you guys for the kudos I've already gotten here, I wasn't sure how I was gonna go on here (since I'm still very much getting used to the format of the site, but I'm getting there!!) It means a lot to me and makes me feel a bit more assured in my choice of spreading my wings to other platforms!**

**Now to the actual thing: I got a poll going!**

**[This poll](https://www.quotev.com/quiz/9691279/Which-AU-should-my-next-one-shot-be-of) on Quotev is to assess what you guys wanna see as an Undertale oneshot or series. Any AU or character, and it can be an x Reader or something totally different!! I already have a few stories in the works after being able to identify the different stories the first few people that have already taken it have requested, some just oneshots, others actual stories, depending on whether I have a lot of ideas for it or had one in the works (which is the case for a few, which is cool! It means I'm not doing what I usually do and keeping up with the latest interests) taking this not only allows for you guys to show me what you're all interested in the most, but is also linked to something cool in the near future ;)**

**So if you do have the time, please take this quiz!! It's super quick, and if anything you want isn't on there, just drop a comment or a PM and I'll look into it!!**

**Thank you all once again for being such lovely humans, what I did to deserve you I'll never know!!**

**~Amor**


	3. Smells like Mustard

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> You meet a certain asshole of a skeleton, and chances of escape in the near future grow slimmer.

It didn't take you long to clear your plate and lick it clean, genuinely surprised at the quality of the food you'd been provided. Did Papyrus make that? He may be a piece of shit but he could sure as hell cook.

Almost as if they had been waiting for you to finish, the door was slowly pried open on the other side of the shed, your eyes following the sound of squeaking metal immediately, sure that you were about to meet this Sans guy that your captor had spoken of.

You wondered what Papyrus' brother could possibly look like, probably just as tall, maybe even more so. You certainly weren't looking forward to that, Papyrus was at least a head taller than you already, you didn't need someone else that height or taller around. But the way he talked about him, it seemed like Sans was the younger brother, so maybe he was-

...Well he's certainly far shorter than you were imagining.

In fact, as the skeleton walked in, you found yourself wondering if the pair were genetically related or not at all. Besides both being skeletons, the list of similarities ran short. Where Papyrus was ridiculously tall and stick thin, besides his oddly broad shoulders, Sans was short and stout, the puffy black jacket he wore accentuating that feature further. Despite him still looking just as edgy as his brother, the shorter of the pair held a seemingly perpetual smile of wickedly sharp looking teeth, a golden one gleaming in the low lights of the shed. And overall he just looked far grubbier in comparison to his pristine brother. 

You must have been staring for a while, because before you knew it, the skeleton was in front of you, staring with just as much intensity as you.

It was his dark chuckle that snapped you back to reality, and you watched him as he sat back on the stool Papyrus had been sitting on previously, face showing clear amusement, though at what you couldn't tell.

"What's so funny?" You questioned, watching the skeleton carefully as you did. Papyrus had warned you about not giving his younger brother a hard time, and you didn't wanna be on the bad end of some sort of crazy-ass magic attack, but curiosity, and need to catch every opportunity for sarcasm always won over.

The bag of bones didn't seem overly impressed by your snark, but any true annoyance was hidden when his leering grin turned back to one of dark amusement. "I jus' can't fuckin' believe my bro was tellin' me the truth. He actually caught a human!" He started to wheeze out another laugh, seemingly at your expense, before he leaned forward, probably to get a better look at you, "jeez, was he the one who banged ya up this bad?" He questioned, his breath blasting across your face. It smelled like mustard and alcohol, and you coughed a little at the pungent scent. How skeletons even ate or had the ability to breathe you didn't know, but it wasn't something you were too concerned with at the moment. You could question skeletal physics in your own time. And of that you had plenty.

"This is mostly from the fall, and... someone else's attacks." You said absentmindedly, pointing to the multitude of injuries you'd obtained during your short time in the underground. You didn't want to think about Toriel at the moment, and the strange day you spent with her, nor your fearful flee from her rundown home in the ruins. You'd just managed to learn to ignore the feeling of flames against your skin, a reminder wasn't needed so soon.

Despite yourself, you found your hand ghosting over the skin on your face where you'd been badly burnt, before realising you were doing so and pulling your hand away, looking down at the ground and tapping your fingers against the cold concrete.

Sans seemed to notice, but didn't show any signs of caring, leaning back on the stool, not seeming to care or notice that there was no back to it, just acting as if it were a chair with a back to it.

Not wanting to question it, or him and his ability to defy physics, you shuffled back slightly against the wall, ignoring the cold that hit you like, well, a brick wall, as you did. You shifted the plate out of the way, the porcelain making a light grating sound that echoed around the small shed as you did. Seeming to notice it's there, Sans sighed, seemingly in annoyance, before standing up and gesturing for you to hand the plate over. Not wanting to refuse, you do so quickly, wincing when you went to use your injured arm and switching over to the other instead. Once again, the short skeleton took no notice of your pain and simply turned around to walk out of the shed.

Except he suddenly vanished into thin air with a small zap of what sounded and felt like electricity the only evidence of him having ever been there.

He just...

Did he actually just teleport?!

It took him mere seconds before he returned, appearing right back on the stool, leaned back as if he'd never gotten up.

Alright, maybe now was a good time to ask all those burning questions about how skeletons worked...

"You can teleport?" You asked quickly, not really considering any consequences speaking out could cause and, despite your astonishment, you tried to not let it show too much. Didn't need this guy mocking you for being as interested as you were in the magic the creatures had down here.

The skeleton didn't even move to look at you, eyes closed in a relaxed state as he rested, "Yeup." He replied simply, making you frown. He was just gonna say 'Yep' and nothing more? Was he really gonna be  _that_  guy?

"Mind telling me... How?" You questioned, shuffling forward slightly, "Because I dunno if teleportation is a thing _anyone_  can do down here," you shivered inwardly at that thought, "but it certainly isn't a skill that most humans possess."

"It's nunna yer business, ya piece o' shit." Jeez, this guy was just lovely. You shrugged the insult off, not really giving a shit about what he said to you. Just another asshole.

For a while it was silent, just a faint hum filling the room that you hadn't noticed before. Maybe it was because of Sans. You wondered if he really was just gonna be that douchebag of a person who tells you it's just 'magic' and refuses to say anything more, but after a few minutes he seemed to deem you worthy of a response, sighing quietly before looking to you, "If I jus' said 'Magic' wouldya be mad at me?" He asked with a slight smirk, almost as if he'd read your mind. You couldn't mask your slight shock, but quickly went to eying him in suspicion. Before you could even accuse him of anything, he waved his hand in the air in a dismissing manner, "I'm messin wit ya, dipshit. Yer face is like an open book, I don't gotta be a mind reader to tell what you were thinkin'." He said simply, shrugging his shoulders with a slight chuckle. You sent him a pouty frown in annoyance, but he just seemed to find it amusing, his chuckle rapidly turning into a full-blow belly laugh. You rolled your eyes, glad to at least hear a sound that seems slightly positive, even if it was at your expense.

It didn't take long for the skeleton to compose himself once more, however, but he overall seemed a bit less stiff toward you. 

"Not all monsters can teleport, So ya know, kid. In fact, I dunno any other than me that can, so ya don't 'ave ta worry bout that," Sans started out of the blue, shocking you slightly. You almost forgot you'd asked a question, and you'd barely been expecting him to really answer in the first place, with all the insults and all, "And I know it's annoyin' to jus' say 'Magic' but that's pretty much all it is. Us monsters are made up o' the stuff, unlike you humans. Yer all made of..." He seemed to be stuck on the word for a moment, trying to figure it out, "Flesh, I guess. Flesh an' cells an' gross shit like that." You felt half-offended by the way he said it, like the mention of all those things was something disgusting or taboo. 

"Wait, cells? All living things are made up of cells, though. Why's that so 'gross' when you're made up of them too?" You asked, suddenly realising that choice of wording.

"Cus we ain't. Magic, remember? We got about as much physical matter makin' us up as Boss has actual emotions. None whatsoever. The guy's got the emotional range of a fuckin' teaspoon." You couldn't quite stifle the soft chuckle that escaped you, though you wondered who this 'Boss' was he was referring to. His work boss? That was the only person you could think of. It didn't matter to you much, the stout skeleton's nonchalant demeanour was a breath of fresh air, even if he was a bit of an ass. Ok, he was a huge douche, but he wasn't dishing out death threats. It's the best you'd encountered yet.

After the little chat about monster biology, mostly silence hung between the pair of you, not quite uncomfortable, but you'd been enjoying having something along the lines of a casual conversation with another person without feeling the imminent threat of death. It was a bit anxiety reducing. But now with the silence, Sans laying back on the stool, looking to be half asleep (He sure was doing a _great_ job of watching you...) you were once again left only to your thoughts. Mostly of escape. 

You'd been observing the shed for the little while you'd been stuck, as well as the shitty collar you're still forced to wear, trying to work out ways to get out. The thing was, the structural integrity of the shed itself was... pretty low, to put it nicely. It looks like the two brothers just decided they wanted a shed one day and grabbed four or so pieces of scrap metal from a dump somewhere, and stuck them together with some glue and nails. The slightest gust of wind caused the whole thing to creak, and every time Papyrus slammed the door, the place shook like there'd just been an earthquake. With the amount of weaponry scattered around the place, being able to cut through the lock on the door, or just pushing the whole damn thing over, would be easy as pie.

The issue was the collar and leash.

Because no matter the amount of effort you put into getting the things off, how much you chewed into the leather (which tasted like shit) or tried to stretch them, the leather was either actually made of steel, or the magic the tall skeleton had used on it was very legitimately impossible to remove.

Which wasn't good.

So you had to work out a way of getting rid of the magic. You wondered if the weaponry and tools on the walls had magic in them and that would somehow counteract the same magic in the leash, but you couldn't reach anything. And without magic of your own, you were stumped.

But now Sans was here...

"Uh, hey Sans?" You asked seemingly out of the blue, trying to calculate how you were gonna do this. The guy had been civil enough so far, but you weren't looking to push it. You watched the short skeleton pry one eye socket open, peering at you through it with a single red pupil... thing.

"What?" He questioned, sounding just slightly annoyed. Probably not amused that you woke him up. Alright, let's just get straight into this before he gets pissed and murders you.

You hesitated for a moment before posing your question as carefully as possible, "On the topic of uh, magic and stuff, I guess. If someone does something with magic, like... like locking a door, or making something unbreakable, for two totally random examples, are they the only ones that can reverse it? Or can someone else do it another way?" You asked tentatively, "Once again, completely hypothetical." Nailed it. He was scanning your face, and you could instantly tell he knew what you were trying to work out. With how well you went with keeping subtle, you weren't surprised. You wondered if he was gonna hurt you or even kill you for asking a question like that, but he just laughed. Not a mocking laugh like when he first saw you, but one of... perhaps amusement? Pity? You couldn't tell, but it wasn't exactly a negative response. Good, you had a sliver of hope going for you.

He sat up properly in his seat, slouching over so he was leaning closer to you, eyes flicking to your collar and along the leash. He pointed at said leash, his amusement showing clear, "I was wondering why he 'ad ya tied up like a fuckin dog and ya hadn't escaped yet. How long ya been trying to get outta that? Since he did it?" You sent him an annoyed scowl, crossing your arms and turning away as he returned to laughing, "sweetheart, ya can't just break somethin' that's been enchanted with magic. Someone else's magic can break it, but it's a helluva lot easier for the person who originally did it ta take said magic back." You listened, but found yourself to be annoyed by the response. So Sans could, theoretically, break it, but he'd have to put in more effort.

This guy sounds like the sort to exert the least amount of energy possible, you doubted you were getting anything out of him.

Even so, you looked over at the skeleton, gaze going between the collar and himself, a slightly pleading look falling over your face. The skeleton watched, still with an amused look, sitting back on his seat, arms propped behind his head like the asshole he so obviously seemed to be.

"Sorry, but I don't feel like dying today. Boss'd skewer me if he knew I'd been tampering with 'his prisoner'." You cringed at the wording, (and you took notice of how this Boss he'd been referring to the whole time seemed to be Papyrus... strange...) but shook your head, standing to your feet shakily. You'd been spending far too much time sitting in the time you'd been here. You had pins and needles real bad.

"C'mon, man. It's not like I've got the guts to actually do anything! Have you seen your brother?! I do NOT wanna go toe to toe with that when I'm barely able to stand, let alone fight or run." It was, technically, true. You had to bide your time before making your escape. You had to be healed enough to make an actual getaway.

Sans barely had to contemplate the suggestion, shaking his head, "Nup, don't matter fi ya give me puppy dog eyes or not, I ain't riskin' my neck for ya. Besides, you're the one with _guts_ 'ere, not me." He snorted quietly to himself, you raising an eyebrow. This guy was full of laughs, wasn't he?

Then you got it.

Oh my god it was a pun.

"Did you really have to throw that in there?!" You yelled in annoyance as he full out started laughing again, snorting in between, which just caused you to start giggling. It wasn't even a funny pun, but it and the sound of the skeleton's laughter caught you off guard and now you were on the floor, clutching your stomach as it cramped from laughing so hard.

And in that moment, where you were happier than you'd been for a while, the shed door was slammed open, making both you and Sans stop immediately, you sitting up to see King Shithead himself, Papyrus. And he wasn't looking particularly pleased, to say the very least.

He was glaring daggers at the pair of you, but his gaze fell harshly on Sans especially. He had sobered quickly from his amused, almost cocky look, to a sweaty mess as he refused to meet his brother's gaze.

"Sans, what is the meaning of this... Shennaniganery!" You winced at the volume of his voice, not quite sure if that was even a real word, but the fury in that voice sure was enough for you to not want to question it. It seemed Sans was the same, shoving his hands into his pockets, still not looking his brother in the eyes.

"Heh, sorry Boss, y'know how it is. I'm just too funny." He chuckled, but you could hear the strain in his voice. The taller edgelord didn't sound happy with the response, however, marching over and picking up the small sack of bones, hauling him over his shoulders. With how spikey his shoulder pads were, you worried for a moment that Sans would be impaled, but the pair looked practised in this, like it happened too often. Sans seemed relieved, perhaps expecting worse.

Said EdgeMyester turned his gaze to you, and the look could have frozen your blood. Yep, all that laughter was _gone_ now, "You ate everything I gave to you?" He growled out, his voice reduced to a threatening growl. You found yourself nodding instinctively, before realising he was waiting for a verbal response, tumbling over yourself to find words, but you had seemed to lose the ability to speak proper sentences.

"Food! I... Yes I ate it! Every food... I mean- All the food!" You were cringing as you tried to stop your mouth from moving, feeling your hands trembling slightly at the look you were receiving from the tall skeleton. Disappointment? It's what it looked like, but even if it didn't quite make sense in your mind, it sent something through you that made you quiver. That, and you felt guilty for something you couldn't even place.

The skeleton waited for a moment for a more eloquently put response, before merely rolling his eyes as he turned back to his brother, shaking his head and muttering something under his breath before he marched his way over to the shed door.

"What was that, Boss?" Sans asked, just loud enough for you to be able to hear too, prompting his brother to repeat himself.

"I said, 'You had _ONE_ job and you couldn't even do that right. Not that I should have expected any different from the likes of _you._ I can't believe I have to do everything by myself.'" Oh. Sans looked like he'd just taken a slap to the face, but he quickly hid it when he realised you were watching the exchange. You sent him a look of pity, but he ignored it, looking away from you with a look on his face you couldn't quite describe. Something within the realms of anger, but you didn't know why he'd be angry at you. At his shit of a brother, maybe, but it was definitely an emotion directed at you. 

You weren't given much longer to think on it before the door was slammed behind the pair, and you were left alone again.

That went quickly... almost too quickly.

You certainly felt sorry for Sans, even if he was an asshole. He was an asshole not immediately making a threat to your life, so he was probably the safest person to have around, for the time being. That is, if his brother even lets him get close enough to you after walking in on the pair of you laughing. The bastard's probably allergic to happiness.

You shuffled back into your little space you'd made for yourself, pulling the tattered blanket over your knees as your head pressed back on the pillow you'd propped up behind you on the wall. It's only been two or three days, if that, but you felt like you'd been trapped for an eternity. Everything still hurt. You didn't know if you were ever truly going to get out. 

The cold had begun to creepy back in, now that you weren't distracted, and as you curled up, shivering, you wondered what was happening on the surface. Not really large-scale things, just the little things you hadn't really thought much of before. Like whether it was raining or not, if someone had gone to fix that streetlight down the road from your home yet, if it was a hot day or a cold day.

If you could see the stars.

You tried to distract yourself with these thoughts as you pulled your knees to your chest, wishing you were somewhere else.


End file.
